According to the Carnegie Mellon Computing Services Website, "bandwidth is the
maximum amount of data that can travel a communications path in a given time.
Bandwidth is typically measured in bits per second." A commonly used metaphor for
bandwidth is to think of communications path as a pipe and the bandwidth is
representative of the width of the pipe, determining how much data can flow through.
Carnegie Mellon has a bandwidth policy which is meant to keep the "pipe of
information" unclogged, allowing everyone equal access to the resources that the
Internet has to offer. The bandwidth policy is a set of limits for the amount of
bandwidth that each individual can use during the span of one day. There are both
advantages and disadvantages of such a policy which will be expanded upon during our
presentation. We will also expand upon how bandwidth usage is utilized in the
context of everyday life and CMU.